Blockchain stores and distributes information across a network of computers, making it widely accessible but also decentralized and more secure. Under the concept, instead of stealing from a person by robbing his bank, a person’s money is kept in hundreds of banks, and stealing it would require robbing each one at the same time.

Tech employment in the United States expanded by nearly 200,000 jobs in 2017 to 11.5 million workers, according to a recent report by technology industry association CompTIA. Thirty-eight states saw positive tech employment growth in 2017, including Nevada. The state added 1,419 net new tech jobs year-over-year, raising the estimated tech industry employment in the state to 31,393.

It’s hard to keep your hands to yourself in Western Nevada College’s Industrial Technology Lab. Spread out over multiple rooms in the Reynolds Center, the lab holds every piece of equipment a student would need to learn and experience to work in industrial technology.

When Guy Gardner bought Quality Plastics in Sparks in 1983, the company had a single piece of technology: a photocopier. Today, the company’s staff of 35 relies extensively on the tools of technology to design and manufacture often-complex plastics products for business-to- business, business-to- government and business-to-consumer markets.

The logistics industry used to be all about big metal — semi-trailer trucks and warehouses filled with miles of steel racking. These days, the logistics business is about big data just as much as it’s about big metal, and northern Nevada companies continue to be among the industry’s leaders. Just look, for instance, at the ways that technology is helping to drive the rapid growth of ITS Logistics, the locally grown company that recently moved into a 630,000-square- foot facility in Sparks.

In the most traditional sense of the word, it is easy to see how the idea of “printing” may seem like a dated concept. “Printing” — in and of itself — sounds like a static, old school, practically prehistoric medium. But Nevada Blue accepts that traditional paradigm as a challenge — and rises above it owing to new, leading-edge technology.